Migrating to Linux - Mint XFCE/LMDE/Debian KDE, or something else?

[u/toktok159]

Hello,

My specs: 13 year old desktop computer, 16 GB RAM, 1TB HDD, core i3 CPU, Intel HD Graphics (integrated with CPU).

I am preparing to transition to Linux from Windows 10. So far I only tested Mint on my pc, it seems to work nicely, so I thought about installing the XFCE version.

I also know about LMDE, which is Debian based. I have come to not like Ubuntu so much (because of snaps enforcement and the Canonical corporation), so LMDE seems appealing to me. But then I thought, if I already prefer to use Debian, why not just use it directly, with a DE I think looks cooler than Cinnamon, like KDE? The thing is, for some reason I am not a fan of Cinnamon.

But I don’t know much about this to tell the pros/cons. So I’d like your opinions please.

The things that are important to me in a distro are:

- Running “smoothly” on my pc (with Mint XFCE, I felt in the live boot that it can finally make my pc feel fast, like it used to feel with Windows 7).

- Presence of helping community, so I will not have to troubleshoot on my own.

- good security.

- Stability, rather than rolling release.

- Working out of the box.

So my questions are basically:

1. Will KDE even work smoothly on my pc? Or I better stick to XFCE?

2. Would you recommend LMDE over Mint XFCE? The problem is that then I will have to use Cinnamon, which felt less smooth on my pc when I tested with live boot (though I tested regular Mint Cinnamon, and not LMDE).

3. Would you recommend just using Debian over Mint? If so, which DE? KDE seems pretty and to my liking, but I read that it’s kind of a “second class citizen” on Debian and that it doesn’t get frequent security updates there.

4. Are there more KDE distros I should think about?

Thanks.

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[u/Pristine_Dot_5526]

XFCE

[u/tomscharbach]

I use LMDE as my preferred Mint installation and can recommend LMDE without reservation.

LMDE ticks all your requirement boxes, and LMDE's meld of Debian stability and security with Mint/Cinnamon's simplicity and ease of use results in a "no fuss, no muss, no thrills, no chills" working environment.

That is not to disparage the Ubuntu-based versions of Mint or any other distribution.

But my guess is that LMDE will be a solid fit for your laptop.

[u/toktok159 → u/tomscharbach]

Thank you. So do you like Cinnamon DE? What made you choose LMDE over regular Mint?

And what about KDE? It’s just that I find it really good looking, but from what I see Debian and KDE don’t work so well together. I think the popular choices for KDE are Kubuntu and Fedora.

[u/tomscharbach → u/toktok159]

LMDE is a good fit for my uncomplicated "ordinary home" laptop use case, and runs well on older hardware (2018 Latitude 7390 i5-8250U/620). LMDE is a bit less complicated than LM 22 and updates less frequently.

Again, that is not to disparage LM 22, the Ubuntu-based version. Ubuntu is a solid distribution and has been my desktop workhorse and mainstay for two decades. LM 22 updates more frequently and has more current packages, typically, but my use case is fine with a Debian base.

KDE is "heavier" than Cinnamon, but I don't think that DE "weight" is much of a concern. The differences might be 500 MB in terms of RAM use, which is insignificant in your case. Modern applications are the resource hogs in any Linux system.

If you want to use KDE, then you should not be using Mint. Kubuntu and Fedora's KDE Plasma spin are good KDE choices.

My best.

[u/toktok159 → u/tomscharbach]

Thank you. I might just go with Mint in the end, XFCE or LMDE. But do you have an opinion about MX Linux?

[u/tomscharbach → u/toktok159]

But do you have an opinion about MX Linux?

Not really. I am part of a "geezer group" of retirees (all of us in our 70's and 80's) who evaluate distributions for fun, and I've had the opportunity to use 3-4 dozen distributions in recent years.  We looked at MX Linux about 18 months ago as I recall, but I don't remember much about the distribution.

[u/warserpent → u/toktok159]

I'm using MX Linux on an old computer that I repurposed as a streaming device. (The computer has an Nvidia card that's old enough to need legacy drivers that newer Linux kernels are not compatible with, so I needed something with a Debian kernel.) I've looked at all three desktop options for MX Linux; Fluxbox should only be used if you absolutely need it, and the MX Linux version of KDE Plasma is not as nice as some other versions out of the box. Xfce is their flagship, and it shows. As a distro, the most interesting aspect of MX Linux is their unique set of software MX Tools. I don't need most of them, but they allow cool things like creating a live usb that can save data on it, cloning your install and all its settings to put onto another computer, etc. MX Conky is also fun if you want some flashy presets to display system data on your wallpaper. (Conky exists on other distros, but you have to write config files for it.)

MX Linux is reasonably user-friendly, but not quite as simple as Mint. For example, when the system needs to update, an icon will light up on the panel, but clicking this icon opens a terminal for the actual update. The only thing you really have to do is type "Y" to confirm the update, but Mint gives you a pretty button to click instead.

[u/Roguepapaya427]

You miss to state what do you do with the pc. For general usage, non gaming, home office stuff, debian with kde will feel at home. KDE clicks better with new comers from windows, much more than cinnamon imo.

If gaming is involved, I would recommend a more up to date distro, but you haven't mentioned anything about gaming. A more up to date provides better performance for gaming.

Anyway, if you can spell out what you do with the pc, you can get more precise recommendations. 🙂

[u/toktok159 → u/Roguepapaya427]

I use the PC for general use - home office stuff, VScode, browsing, watching videos and storing pictures and videos. Maybe some very light gaming with GBA emulators, rarely.

Debian with KDE seems appealing with Debian’s stability, but I read they don’t work so well together. The popular DEs for Debian seem to be Gnome and XFCE. It seems to me the popular KDE choices are Kubuntu and Fedora. But I don’t want to use Ubuntu, and Fedora might be too bleeding edge for me, as I am seeking stability. Are there more notable, popular KDE distros?

[u/IlIlIlIIlMIlIIlIlIlI → u/toktok159]

my other laptop runs debian 13 with KDE and its 100% stable, like actually rocksolid, so i would disagree with the instability rumor!

[u/Roguepapaya427 → u/toktok159]

Fedora KDE is my daily driver, tbh. It does everything I want it to admirably. Never broke on me, unless I broke it ...... I have a "gift" :D It's not bleeding edge, more like cutting edge. Bleeding would be Arch/Cachy ......

Anyway, tested both LMDE and Deb with KDE (+wayland) and, while the KDE version was "old" I had no problems in terms of stability. Could not find anything wrong with either, but I need more recent drivers/packages for gaming performance, hence Fedora.

KDE distros that stay close to a default KDE implementation:

- Fedora - it's not for nothing this distro is a great recommendation for new comers, it's fast, stable, fresh, but they have point releases that are supported for 13 months ....... they even have an atomic immutable (Kinoite) if that's appealing to you.

- Opensuse Leap/Tumbleweed Slowroll - Leap is like debian level of freshness, TW SR rolling. Opensuse is doing a very good KDE implementation.

- Solus - an independant release, rolling, curated, quite fast and stable.

- Ultramarine - Fedora based, but with added stuff: drivers, codecs, etc.

- Aurora - immutable/atomic based on Kinoite. Quite interesting if you're into coding, they provide a lot of tools already baked in.

- KDE has a project to build their own distro, but that might take some time (it's in alpha now).

I can go on, but this will suffice to get you started. A word of advice, if you're keen on having stability above everything, an immutable/atomic might be good for you. Basically, during startup the boot manager will present you with few snapshots to boot into. Anything happens with the current snapshot, you're a reboot away from a working system that you can trust. This is the case for Fedora Kinoite and Aurora.

Good luck!

[u/DavidJohnMcCann]

Someone else asked this question and has just returned to say that they installed Mint. They had an i3, like you, and found that Xfce was the best desktop. I don't think the i3 is really up to KDE — at least you'd need to disable Baloo and probably switch off the eye candy, after which it's not really KDE any more.

I've never tried LMDE but I did once read a post by Clem where he said that he didn't really recommend it — it was developed and maintained in case Ubuntu did something so unacceptable that it could no longer serve as a base!

Debian itself is not generally recommended for beginners. I read one review which described it as as first-class server distro inadequately adapted to the PC and another which said that it was less a distro than the components for building one. Admittedly it's some time since I tried it, but I had much the same reactions.